Issues And Ideas: News Commentary & Analysis With Chris DeBello May 31 2026

Join us for expert discussions and analysis on today's news, politics, ICE actions at Delaney Hall in Newark NJ, Trump's Iran war policies, the early days of Pope Leo's papacy, the many ways that cuts to healthcare programs will impact all of America, how to prevent Lyme Disease and what the Bible teaches about revealing what's hidden in darkness.
 
(00:00) Kathy O'Leary, coordinator with Pax Christi and Lead Organizer with Eyes On ICE NJ, shares details about the conditions detainees at the ICE operated Delaney Hall in Newark NJ are being subjected to which include denial of healthcare, substandard living conditions, denial of rights and unhealthy food.

(16:13) Former U.S. House Of Representatives member and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican Francis Rooney discusses how the Trump Administration is conducting the Iran war gives his insight into the early days of the papacy of Pope Leo.

(27:01) Sean Strub, Founder of the Sero Project, explains how the Seven Days In June nationwide events will raise awareness of the pending federal government cuts to healthcare programs.

(37:36) Kurt Avery, Founder of Sawyer, offers tips on how to avoid ticks and prevent Lyme Disease through very easy actions.

(49:07) Chris DeBello reveals what the Bible teaches about confronting darkness with light.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Oh, welcome to Excuse and Ideas. I'm Christopello. Last week we witnessed in New Jersey another example of how ICE conducts their operations. They seem to do it in a hidden way, while resisting even trying to intimidate anyone, including elected leaders, who want access to what ICE agents are doing and how they're treating the people that they're responsible for. Latest incident has been unfolding in Newark, New Jersey at Delaney Hall, which, by the way, is a privately owned detention facility that ICE is operating from. All that's unfolded this past Monday, the outrage has continued all through this past week. All this also brings with it the realization that if Ice is operating like this at this one location, is it logical to believe that they're doing so at all locations? My first guest today has been on the ground at Delaney Hall and is here to give a full understanding of all of this. She's a coordinator with Pax Christie, New Jersey, as well as a lead organizer of the protest at Delaney Hall, Kathy O'Leary. Thanks for being here today, Kathy.

SPEAKER_04 1:01

Sure. I just want to correct something. I am not a lead organizer of the protests. I am a lead uh uh organizer of Eyes on Ice. Eyes on Ice has been uh taking care of the uh and supporting support for the visitors who come to visit their loved ones uh inside Delaney Hall and be in solidarity with them and their uh and the people inside uh for over a year now. Uh we've been here seven days a week. We are here every time there are visiting hours uh for the entirety of visiting hours to help people get in to see their loved ones because we understand that getting people in to see their loved ones is the most powerful form of resistance that we can muster uh because that gives them the strength and the courage to continue fighting their cases or uh to decide that uh as a family that it might be better if uh if they return to uh the the person with detention returns to their growth country. So uh we've been doing that for over a year. What happened? Uh there's been organizing inside of Delaney Hall since uh that we were aware of since the end of January. Uh at that point we were made aware of a letter that 25 people inside of Delaney Hall signed um and were able to get out of the facility. Um and uh we published that letter. Um and uh then we became aware about a month ago of a second letter that was signed by almost 300 people inside the facility. So the first letter was signed uh simply by people uh in a single unit, uh which isn't um you know, which which which you can kinda imagine how uh that would be simpler to organize. Um but the when you get to a to a two hundred and something plus uh almost three hundred person letter, um that means they were organized across units and not just across the units of the men, but also uh women, um uh many, many almost all the entire unit of the women had signed the letter as well. So um that was um an extraordinary um piece of organizing in itself. And then uh last Friday uh there was a rally uh organized by a family member and um and uh supported by other families um uh outside Delaney Hall, at which point men from inside of Delaney Hall pulled out and announced that they were on a labor and hunger strike. It is not a hung just a hunger strike, it is also a labor strike.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Captain Can I stop you there for a second? Because a lot of people don't understand this. When uh you say labor strike, it's a more accurate term, it's slave labor because aren't they getting paid a grand total of a dollar a day and the price and the and the and ICE excuses as paying. Yeah, but they use the money to buy stuff at the commissary, completely ignoring the fact that the commissary prices are astronomically outrageous that a day's work at a dollar a a day, you're going to get jacked if that.

SPEAKER_04 4:20

It functions the same way every other prison does, where people are forced to work for uh for meager wages and and then forced to buy necessities at the commissary. This is a tax on the families. A tax on the families in ICE detention, it's a tax on the families in our prisons and jails. This is that this is this is nothing new. Um but and that the prisons uh require their labor to run. So that's as I was saying, the labor strike is is is more effective than the hunger strike in many ways. Well the hunger strike gets the headlines, the labor strike is what cripples the facility. So and that's what's been happening. The when the uh legislators came in the other day, um usually what would happen is that the uh the the people inside who were detained inside would be woken up at the wee hours in the morning and forced to clean uh the the units uh without any uh you know, out uh without any gloves, any protective uh uh gear at all, and then without without sufficient supplies either. Um uh but uh when the um uh legislators came in uh this week, the um the administration of the jail was forced to clean the toilets. So that's uh something that I'm I'm uh a little bit of joy that I'm hanging on hanging on to right now. Um so um yeah. So they're but unfortunately those the the fact that the prison is not running properly also is some is is borne primarily on the people inside. So they're not getting um they're not getting uh their their their their bathrooms are are f filthier than usual, right? Because they're not cleaning them and they're they have no clean sheets. Uh and I I heard uh one one family member said they have no sheets at all. Um uh yeah, so they're and they they're so they're dealing with uh and they're they're eating off of paper plates and that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

So um, and that's and that's it and that's if they can eat the food. I've heard reports saying the food is maggot-filled, uh the water is is as close to sewage water as you can get out of a tap. Sometimes some people have said it's just sea water with how salty it is. These these are in no way, shape, or form humane conditions. And when you look at statistics and these are ice statistics, by the way. Right. Five percent of those in custody, five percent have a criminal record, seventy-three percent, no arrests.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

We don't we don't use the we don't use those we don't use those um statistics um because it doesn't matter. Uh it doesn't matter. If these are our neighbors, it doesn't matter. Um because um it it doesn't matter what you did. It doesn't matter what the worst thing you did in your life was, you are a human being and you're entitled to human rights.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

And you're on American soil, and I know that's there are people who aren't gonna like what I'm about to say, but the U.S. Constitution affords every person on American soil due process rights and rights to liberty and freedom and humane treatment. That's that's a given. There there's no debate about that. Even Justice Justice Antonin Scalia agreed with that.

SPEAKER_04 7:36

Uh yeah, but that's never been our practice. And it hasn't been our practice um since uh since I since ICE was founded, uh certainly.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Oh no. No, absolutely not. I mean uh and and when they try to defend themselves, they defend themselves by lying about the what's uh that the uh what what are some of the things I heard that there's no hunger strike in there. Uh they can come uh elected officials come in any time they want.

SPEAKER_04 7:59

Had a federal judge come to the determination recently, Michael, we're all we're but we're all focusing on the wrong things right now. We are focusing on what's happening outside, we're focusing on the politicians, we're not focusing on the people inside. The demands of the people inside are very clear. And even before they published the demands, they were telling legislators who were coming to visit that we don't want you to focus on conditions. We don't want to be comfy is what they said. That we say they said we do not want to be comfy, we want to be free, we want to get out.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

So uh but then the curse becomes the curse becomes you need the politicians, you need point A to get to point B. So how do you c how do you close that gap now?

SPEAKER_04 8:42

Well, uh, you know, it would be helpful if um if people started humanizing the people inside of detention as opposed to focusing on what the politicians are doing or what protesters outside the facility are doing. There are now three letters published. How about people go read those letters, find out what people said, start sharing those letters, talking about the people inside as people, not as statistics and and demanding and demanding that accountability not just from Republicans but from Democrats too, who have voted over and over and over again for more and more money for ICE. This facility and this system that as it exists today was built under Bill Clinton. Belaney Hall last was last uh um uh ran as a as an ICE detention center under Bush. It ran as an ICE detention center under Obama and it was on President Biden's list to reopen as a detention center. Had Harris run re-election, Belaney Hall would be open. And we wouldn't be talking about how horrible the conditions are inside because because uh there seems to be an idea that when Democrats run ice jails, they're better.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

And uh as I mentioned back in the introduction, this has become an industry. GEO Group, for example, owns Delaney Hall, a billion dollar contract, and they got that by doing winning political favors and making donations to the right people.

SPEAKER_04 10:09

So for the person they've always done that. They have always done that, and they make donations to to Democrats as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Absolutely. But for the person listening right now, Kathy, what what do you what can what are you doing to help people realize this is a an issue of humanity, not politics.

SPEAKER_04 10:29

We are talking about the people inside. We're talking about the pregnant women who are inside who are miscarrying. We're talking about the the how the people inside yesterday, we are every well every again, everyone is focused on how the people outside are being tear gassed and beaten, right? And and stepersprayed and beaten. Yesterday there was a there was peaceful resistance inside. Uh they were try they were trying to remove the man who was acting as a translator for the unit. He was bilingual, uh, so he was translating from English to Spanish and Spanish to English for the rest of the men in the unit they were trying to remove him to break the strike. And when everyone gathered around him to keep them from pulling him out of the unit, they w with their hands raised and their backs to the guards surrounding this man to protect him, they started getting beaten. And then they threw uh either pepper spray, what the what actually what the men described as tear gas, uh in the hallways. Started beating people with batons, and this is forty guards, started with forty guards and then ice came in afterwards. This is the end, these are this is based on accounts that we got directly from people inside and from their family members. Uh started beating them, forced them into their rooms, pepper spray spray pepper spray in the room, then lock them in and shut off the ventilation. That's what happened to them yesterday. Now they're on lockdown, they have no tablets. If they're on lockdown, locked in the rooms, they have no access to phones. They've taken away the microwave, so whatever whatever commissary they had saved up, they can no longer use. They have if you can't get to a tablet, anybody who knows anything about a prison knows that you can't do anything without a tablet because you can't get a sick call. You can't cause that because sick calls go through the tablets. Access to commissary goes through the tablets. Access to your moving moving money from your commissary fund to your phone fund so you can continue to have m continue to have money to call your loved ones, it goes through the tablets. So uh so they've taken the tablets away, they've taken the phones away by putting them on lockdown, and they've taken away the microwaves. So uh and they can't get the microwave anyhow because they're on lockdown. So they are and they've been retaliating against all these folks inside. They have continued to find creative ways to push back against uh their uh their treatment and to get their cries heard. They w the other day when legislators were inside, they were out in the rec yard and they were marching in unison shouting libertad, libertad, which means freedom, freedom, and they were threatened with some kind of chemical agent. They were the uh guards were trying to go with them into a fight and they didn't take the bait. These they these these this is extraordinary. This is extraordinary organizing that's going on inside. This is the story. This is what we should be talking about. We should be talking about how how multiple people inside are married to US citizens, how multiple people inside are um are are being threatened with uh deportation to the DRC. There's there's uh people inside with with cancer, there's people inside with HIV, there's people inside who have been held in medical isolation for over a hundred days. So this is what we should be talking about, and we should be saying that all of these people need their freedom.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

And that's exactly what you're doing. For the person listening right now, let's wrap the segment up with this with label for a person listening right now who wants to do more than post comments on social media. What can they do to be actively helping these people?

SPEAKER_04 14:25

They can donate to the commissary funds, to the legal funds, to the uh and directly to the families through the link tree. They can find all of these links on the uh Pox Christie N J Instagram account, uh at P-A-X, C H R I S T I N J at Instagra on Instagram, um and and donate. And please donate to the GoFundMe's. That goes directly to the families. The families are hurting. There's a bread the bread there's a breadwinner inside general almost always, and um they still have to feed their families and pay their rent, and now they have to pay for thousands and thousands of of dollars in legal fees, and and then when they do finally get the get a bond, they have to pay tens of possibly tens of thousands of dollars to get their loved one out, to pay the ransom to get their loved one out.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

We're gonna put the link of to the Instagram account over on a homepage for you listening so you can have easy access to it. You don't have to be fumbling for a peop uh pen and piece of paper right now. And Kathy, I want to thank you and eyes on ice and everything you're doing because as you just did here, you you helped us place the focus where it needs to be, to the point where I want to correct myself on something I said not too long ago. I was pushing back against people who were comparing the detention centers to concentration camps, but from what you have let us understand, they are indeed 21st century concentration camps. It was wrong. It was wrong then, it's equally wrong now, and it's gonna be the truth and the people that are gonna make this better for these people who are wrongly imprisoned. So thank you, Kathy.

SPEAKER_04 16:11

Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Among all the events unfolding in front of us, the need to pay attention to one I think is obvious, while another, I believe, is insightful. The obvious is the foreign policy of the Trump administration, specifically how Donald Trump is conducting the war in Iran. The insightful is what Popolillo has been saying and explaining in the early days of his papacy. Both of these, I think, are educational, but only if you have a factual understanding about them. And that's why we turn to my next guest serving the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Florida's 19th District. That was from 2017-2021. Before that, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See for President George W. Bush's administration. That was 2005-2008. He's also author of the book, The Global Vatican. Ambassador Francis Rooney, how are you today, Ambassador?

SPEAKER_02 17:02

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

I appreciate you taking the time on this. Uh certainly with everything moving as fast as it does, it can be confusing, especially if let's start with the policy with the war in Iran, because it seems like there's uh the hint of a settlement, at least for a ceasefire. I mean, this is going to be a multiple part uh resolution of all this, but uh then it's almost as if Donald Trump thinks of whatever he thinks of that day, that's the new reason for the war, and that means all the negotiations have to start over again. Help us make sense of what we're seeing unfolding with this unfortunately fluid, I guess I should say, activity with policy regarding the war in Iran.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Well, I don't think very much of uh what's happened with Iran and the United States makes any sense at all. I don't know why he picked that fight. They didn't go into it uh having thought out all the options. They prevaricated about the different reasons for their actions, and now they seem to have settled on the nuclear thing, but uh they'll probably prevaricate on that again.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Yeah, I mean just mentioned here of Just the other day he all of a sudden he pops in with the Abraham Accords.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Yeah. He it's distractive. And I think he'll do anything just to keep the people distracted on how ignorant the policy was in the first place. And he's gonna wind up making a deal that's probably no better than what Obama got. It's that.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Well, I I heard someone talk about this too. It seems like whenever they're getting close, the negotiators, the tight Trump circle turn to Trump and say, you know, it's not gonna be as good as what Obama got, and then that's when that's what compels Trump to trash everything and make them start all over again.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Right. Because Trump compares everything to what Obama got. Everything in the world is a referendum on Trump. How often you praise him, how often you butter him up, uh uh how he can say he succeeded where no other president has succeeded, all these things are kind of excessive. Excessive of his personality.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Not to be conspiratorial, but how much of Trump's efforts are meant to be serving Israel's priorities?

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Oh, I think a lot of them. I think Netanyahu kind of goaded him into taking this step. And uh I don't think Trump I'm sorry I say, I don't think Trump's guys thought it through what they really could accomplish with Iran and how wily the Iranians are, and how it was really Netanyahu's problem, not ours.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

And as as history shows, too, it's it's totally realistic to believe that Iran would agree to would not agree to anything tougher than the twin twenty fifteen nuclear deal, and they're willing to sacrifice the majority of their population, certainly if it means harming in any way, shape, or form America as well as Israel.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

Yeah, you know, uh our our United States and many Western countries have real trouble appreciating the depth of the difference between countries that value life and countries that don't. The countries that don't value life have some significant weaponry to deploy that we can totally not can't really totally comprehend.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

And this isn't to be in any favor, any way, shape, or form of Iran having nuclear nuclear weapons, but if you look at the 2015 campaign, at least uh the the 2015 nuclear agreement with the U.S. and multiple other nations, there at least was supervision and they had a leash on them that, okay, fine, you you obviously can use nuclear power. Any nation would want that. And the weaponization of it had at least uh a moderate leak on it, I guess would be the accurate thing to say. And again, this just shows the the ignorance of what's happening in the current state of affair affairs with the Oval Office and the Trump administration. They had a useful deal instead of trying to add to it, they scrapped it and went to start over again. Here we are.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Yeah, I mean, you know, I wasn't totally in favor of the terms that Obama agreed to, and I certainly wasn't in favor of giving them all that money back. But Trump's about to talk about doing the same thing, paying them off again.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

I I heard a figure if if if the if it came to pass, it could be a potential three hundred billion dollar windfall for Iran.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Yeah, I just zero makes zero sense.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

Starting with Ambassador Francis Rooney, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See for the uh President George W. Bush administration, as well as a member of the House of Representatives representing Florida's 19th District. You're listening to issues and ideas. Let us move on to Pope Leo because I have been ever since the Boston Globe reporters came out with the no pun intended, the Book of Revelations about what had been going on with the Catholic Church. And I've been hard on the church, or maybe factually honest with call it whatever you want to. I'm looking at what Pope Leo is doing. I think he could restore a lot of what his predecessors allowed to be lost with the Catholic Church.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

I don't think there's any doubt about it. I think you're absolutely right. He uh you can see how calm and judicious he is versus say Pope Francis being kind of a uh yelling at people all the time.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

And I think he understands the message of the gospel like Pope Benedict did, but with a little more powerful delivery than that. And uh he's onto something with his AI. I mean the parallels between right now with AI and concentration of wealth and inequality are just like 1890 when when Leo the Thirteenth wrote Verum Novara.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

That's one thing that really stood out too when Pope Leo talked about this and so much more in his Magnificent Humanitis, which is basically the hi, here I am, here's what I'm all about, uh papal and encyclical. He's pretty hip to the modern world. He's not, you know, we have people in Congress, no offense, you being a former member, but they're still trying to figure out flip phones as far as technology is concerned.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Right. Yeah, Pope Leo has a keen understanding, I think, of the dangers of AI, and he's willing to have the Vatican weigh in on the damage it could do to humanity. And that's that's really kind of his job, as he explained to Trump. Uh my job is to preach the message of the gospel, and your job is to be president.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

And uh usually never the Twain she'll meet, unfortunately, but that's another debate for another time, too. In your time as ambassador, did you be uh become uh close to or know of the man who will become Pope Leo? And does what you see now come as any surprise to you of the person you knew then?

SPEAKER_02 23:31

No surprise at all. My family's known Pope Leo for about 40 years. And um he he was we've been very involved with the Augustinians because our children went to Augustinian middle, middle, and high schools. And uh I was on the board of it, and Pope Leo used to come down to our board meetings every couple of months. And then when uh we lived in Rome 2005 through 2008, we saw him all the time. We always invited him to every event we had at the house that involved Americans. And uh he's uh he's gonna be a great Pope. I think he could be a great Pope for two different reasons two reasons, among others. One, he ran that order and has had to deal with people problems and money problems. And our popes are not very good at those things. We saw the abuse scandals, the hard difficult to deal with them. We saw Pope Francis uh be defrauded out of three hundred million dollars or so in London. Uh I don't think you'll see that stuff with Pope Leo.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

In your book, you wrote about uh in the Global Vatican, you wrote about soft power and soft diplomacy. Is that Pope Leo right now? Or it seems like he went maybe I mean not as loud and bold as Pope Francis and many of his predecessors, but if you look through the timeline of Popes, you go back to Pope Pius XI and XII, they were certainly absent where they needed to be more present. Is Pope Leo the the needed centrist that the Vatican needs?

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Well, I think after Pope Francis and Pope Benedict for different reasons, he is. I mean Pope Benedict was a scholar, it was very quiet. Pope Francis was a, you know, a a minister to the poor and very loud. I think with Pope Leo, you'll get a lot of Pope Francis' message, but you'll get it expressed in a more uh judicious and rational manner.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

I think much like political parties have to realize and usually fail to do, I think the Pope Pope Leo realizes there's a generational change that's needed in the church. Um certainly with the the absence of a s sufficient number of priests, people come people coming into the priesthood, I think he sounds more of a magnet than a repellent that other popes have been more the opposite.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

In indisputably. In fact, Fox has reported that church attendance uh and interest in Catholicism among young people is up twelve, thirteen percent. And I think that's been r widely corroborated by other media. So that's a good thing. And I think Pope Leo has a lot of responsibility for enthusing these people.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

And he's only getting warmed up too, which is going to be the fun thing to watch and the interesting as well, like I said back in the introduction, when you have the facts and the reality, what you see could be a lot more insightful than just color and noise. And Ambassador Rooney has helped us, I think, better understand this. Be sure to get his book too when it comes to Pop Leo because he gives you a look inside of uh the Vatican. This is 2013, but tradition holds true, and anything pushing against negative or not fully affected tradition is valuable, and I think Pop Leo is going to be doing some of that as well. The book is the Global Vatican, Amazon, Barnesdale, whatever your favorite means is, he is a former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See for President George W. Bush administration, as well as foreign members of the U.S. House representing Florida's 19th Ambassador, Francis Rooney. Thank you so much for your insights and for helping us better appreciate and understand some very important matters in our in our country and world. Thanks for being here today.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

If you're listening to us via your favorite podcast platform, don't forget to follow and subscribe. Access to healthcare programs like Medicare, Medicaid, your own health insurance have always been challenging. That's a good word. Well, considering the changes that we're planning to start later on this year, those challenges wind up being a fond memory when compared to what lies ahead. The budget bill, which I refuse, by the way, to refer to that juvenile term that's been tagged with the past earlier this year, is going to result in massive cuts, higher cost to health care programs that people in every single community of America rely on. It's time for the voice in the wills of we the people. Step up and step forward. Here to discuss all this, is one of the leaders of Seven Days in June. He's also founder of the Tarot Project, former mayor of Milford, Pennsylvania. Sean Strove, how are you today, Sean?

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Hey, I'm fine. Thank you very much for having me on the program.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Well, good to have you here. Talk about this and get people active and aware. SevendaysInjune.org. Learn more about what we are talking about with Sean here. Just to remind us, Sean, how looming of a threat is the cut or the cuts to health care at this point in time that we we understand it's uh I know it's a trillion dollars total, but they they've been a little cutesy with this. They don't start until after the midterms, as if that's gonna make a difference. And it starts a little and then uh the leak becomes a a breaking dam sooner versus later.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

You know, a trillion dollars is so abstract. Who has a grip on what a trillion dollars means, right? Um the bill that was passed last year, HR1 is its technical name, so we can go just with that rather than the uh, as you say, the juvenile label that was applied to it. Uh the tax cuts for people who are very affluent in corporations went into effect immediately. But the pain, uh health care budget cuts to help pay for some of those tax cuts, the implementation of that was delayed until most of it is after the midterm elections this November, and it was I think delayed for obvious reasons. Uh the extent of these cuts, there's never been a budget cut like this in in history uh ever. Um you know, I we were on the air, we're talking a little bit about Milford, Pennsylvania, uh, where uh I live. And uh right in the northwest corner of New Jersey over Suffolk County and across the river, uh, and that's where Milford is. Pike County is a rural county with about 60,000 people. And between 2027 and 2034, we're losing almost a quarter of a billion dollars, 237 million dollars, in just the Medicaid and SNAP cuts. Uh that is dramatic in a little teeny tiny county like this. About 19% of our residents in Pike County are on Medicaid. Uh, one out of 10 or 1 out of 9 of them are going to lose their Medicaid coverage. 36% of the children in our county are on Medicaid. But 60% of the households that get STAP benefits are going to lose some or all of those benefits. These are dramatic, dramatic cuts, and they don't affect just people who uh rely on Medicaid or SAP programs. Uh they affect everybody. Because, first of all, uh losing those benefits puts a burden on those communities, right? Are they going to be filled by the food pantries or by local or state government? You know, there's going to be tremendous pressure there. But also, this bill is going to result in the loss of over a million jobs across the country, going to force a closure or a severe cutback in something like services, like three to six hundred hospitals, especially in rural and sparsely populated areas, which means people are going to have to drive farther for health care. Uh, there are a whole series of things that are going to affect the economic impacts are tremendous uh as well. So this is something that is concerning uh a wide range of people. Um most uh we found that most local officials don't understand that this is coming down the pike and have only be just begun to start to think about contingencies. How do they fill the gaps? How do they deal with the consequences? Um that's what Seven Days in June, which starts on Monday, is about uh to raise awareness, doing a series of events across the country. They're town halls, their rallies, their marches, their candidate forums, uh to generate media coverage of what the effects are locally, not this abstract, you know, trillion dollars or $1.1 trillion, some say, uh nationally, but what it means in individual communities. Um then we're also a big part of it is to hold candidates accountable. We want health care elevated out of partisan politics. We want uh it elevated as a governing priority. This is part of what we elect people to do to help protect uh the health of people in the country. And you know, we can build a healthier nation. This is not like, oh, we want, you know, world peace or something. This is something within our grasp. We know how to do this. Uh we just need the political will to make it happen. Uh and then at last I'll say is on Friday night at sunset, all over the country, they're going to be candlelight vigils uh to uh recognize those who've lost and to recognize those who are going to die because of these cuts. Um and it's also as an example to show uh interfaith solidarity and to uh show that you know, even in this sort of uh rough uh uh brutal political discourse we have in the country these days, uh uh compassion, empathy, generosity, uh these are uh fundamental tenets of every faith tradition. And we shouldn't be afraid to assert them in the public square as well. Um being empathetic and compassionate is not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of a strong society that cares about its weakest and most vulnerable members.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

I think what you just said too, Sean, is going to help people realize they might be thinking, well, I've got an employer supplied health, I pay a little bit, they pay a little bit, everything's fine. Well, those costs are gonna go up for the employer, so guess what? Your cost is gonna go up too. And as you mentioned, with hospitals, especially rural hospitals, if the prices don't go up, their existence might go down. And we we've seen that already happen where there's over 400 hospitals on a on a financial cliff. That right when these cuts go into action, that uh that fall might be coming about. And I saw a report too, researcher estimating that these cuts are going to cause over 51,000 preventable deaths every year. So you're talking about honoring those who have lost their lives because of poor medical care and coverage? That seems to be said of those who are prone to lose their lives when all these cuts and shortages and eliminations are taking place over these next uh several years. So when people go to the to your website for seven days in June, sevendaysinjune.org, what information do you have there? And how can you help how are you helping people, for example, make use of the social media page instead of posting what they have for dinner last last night, post something useful and educational like the information that we're talking about here?

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Yeah, the uh thank you. And the sevendaysindjune.org site is terrific because it has a hundred and some events listed all over the country. So you can see what's going on in your community uh participate in. And there are more being added every day. Uh you know, a lot of people are just in the last couple days saying, hey, I can organize a vigil in my community and go to our website, they can register it there, get the information on there. We have toolkits, we have all sorts of social uh media uh uh memes and things that can be shared. Uh we have you know videos, Lynn Manuel Miranda did a video uh endorsing Seven Days and Jimmy. Mark Anthony's done a video. Uh Noah Wiley, you know, Dr. Robbie from uh was one of our very first supporters uh of this. Uh so you know, this is something health care transcends party politics, right? Healthcare is a discussion at uh at every dinner table in the country and every household in the country at one point or another. Uh and you know, and by the way, one thing I didn't mention is what this is doing to uh health insurance premiums for people who do have, you know, who have uh through the American Care Act. Um there are lots of people whose premiums are not just doubling, in some cases are tripling. Our friend here in uh in Milford was telling me the other day her premiums going from $500 and some dollars to I think almost $1,300 a month. Uh so this is a really, really dramatic, dramatic shift that uh they that that people don't understand. Uh and and and they will when they start to feel this pain in their communities. But we're trying to raise awareness both so the communities and people impacted can prepare and hopefully to build the political will to reverse these draconian uh uh cuts. Um and if we you know elect a Congress this fall that is uh willing to do that, uh hopefully it'll be uh top of uh their priority list when they take office in January.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Well that's the most important part to get ahead of this before it happens. It's easier to prevent than after it happens, trying to turn back the clock. And you can find out the information about getting active in this cause, sevendaysinjune.org. The website to be the voice of the people is about to bring change and to prevent the negative from happening and impacting, and this impact would be a long-lasting impact, as you'll see when you look at some of the stats and other information at sevendaysinjune.org. John Strava, thank you for helping us understand that we do have the power to change things, to keep things fair, equitable, and for we the people, not for we the few. That's the big difference as well. Thanks for being here today.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

Uh as we head into the summer months, our outdoor time, of course, increases. Uh questions for you. How are your sunscreen habits? That's good. Are you careful about staying hydrated? That's a good one. One more for you. What's your awareness about ticks and Lyme disease? Uh-huh. If you don't think either are a big deal or you're not prone because of where you are, well, hell yes again. CDC reports that 476,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease. That's the most recent year stats, and that number, by the way, keeps growing. There are two ways to avoid adding to that number. You can become a shut-in or learn about the steps tick so you can prevent becoming a banquet for ticks as well as mosquitoes. Here to talk about all this is the founder of Sawyer, which has been providing effective products to prevent tick and mosquito contact since 1984. Kurt Avery, how are you today, Kurt?

SPEAKER_03 38:30

Oh, we are great. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Very good to have you here to talk about this. Sawyer.com to learn more about the products as well that can help you avoid what we are talking about here because Kurt, as I said, some people don't really think of uh Lyme disease or any tick or mosquito-borne illness as something serious or they're not going to get it. How wrong is that how wr wrong is that that belief?

SPEAKER_03 38:53

Well, it it's serious when it happens to you, that's for sure. So uh yeah, it's very serious. And and they some of these are lifelong. I mean, you know, maybe you get rid of some of the symptoms, but they keep coming back. So it it's very serious.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Yeah, it's almost uh a a tick version of post-traumatic stress disorder, some of these, because uh with ticks especially, they they can have impact. I mean, it depends on your personal he your specific health, well-being, and your age, but they could have long-term neurological effects if it's not taken care of.

SPEAKER_03 39:27

That's correct. Uh so uh the the trick is to avoid getting uh a tick on you. That's that's that's the game here.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

Uh and this includes, by the way, some people wind up in in emergency rooms just because they take bites, and that number also, according to the the CDC, is growing in numbers and directions that no one wants them to see go. So give us some ideas of protection as far as because you want to prepare before you go outside, but then as you're outside when you come indoors, let's store from beg before you go outside, what should what should your armory include as far as protection and safety and trying to avoid all the nasty stuff that ticks and mosquitoes can do to you?

SPEAKER_03 40:08

Yeah. Well, first I like to start with understanding the tick. It's a very i interesting creature. Um and then if you understand them, you'll be better able to keep them away from you. So first of all, they only breathe one every 15 minutes. So they're very, very slow moving creatures. And their second characteristic is they always climb upwards. So they're gonna be at the top of the blade of the grass or they're gonna be in a bush. So obviously your first thing is, you know, keep your lawns mode and you know, if you're out hiking, try to stay on the path and unless you know you have to go into the bushes and stuff like that. And and the other thing is they're usually proliferated by a lot of rodents. So you know, it's the small little creatures, the mice and the chipmunks. If you're in an area full of them because uh predators are gone, then then they're more likely to be uh elevated uh number of pigs there. So what you do is um the the thing the secret that most people don't know understand is permethrin. And permethrin is something you put on your clothes or on fabrics. It's not a not a topical repellent you're gonna put on your skin. Those work as well. But these the fabric treatment can last six weeks or six washings, so it's a long thing. The shoes. Um was a study said that if you have a treat your shoes with it, a fabric shoe, you're 74% chance less likely of ever getting a tick to land because they're gonna start there and work their way up. So you do your socks, you do your pants, you do your shirts in case you're up against brushes. When a tick crosses one inch of fabric that's treated with permethrin, that's it. It's going to die that day. But because it only breathes once every 15 minutes, it may live for another three, four hours, but it's it'll never embed. It's it's got it's breathes through its abdomen, it's got it, and and just breathes very slowly. The other side of it is if if you do have a tick on you, don't panic. These things are very, very slow moving. It's twelve to twenty-four hours before it even exchanges fluids with you where you would get sick. So you have time to do your tick check, you have time to go underneath it with a little tweezer and pull it out very slowly, don't pop it out. Don't use your cigarettes or Vaseline to try and make it exit by itself because it's got little barbs on its mouthpiece. And if you try to make it exit by itself, it's gonna spit everything it has into you to loosen up the barbs. So just very slowly and wiggle it out and clean up the area when you're done with rubbing alcohol or soap and water. Like that. But you go slowly so you can only be good. So if you understand, and then if you do think you have them on you, you can always throw your clothes in a dryer, turn it on real hot. That will kill them if you if you think you can't see 'em, but it's on your clothes. Uh, spray your dog. It it uh we pares the same thing you put on your clothes is gonna last six weeks on a dog. Uh spray the hair. Um, don't bring 'em home. Uh if you're a hunter like that kind of thing, you shoot uh the trophy. Lay it on the blanket in the back of your truck so all the ticks fall off and as they crawl around on the blanket, they're all gonna come home dead. So a lot of ways to avoid them. Um and and if they are there, just don't panic. They're very, very slow uh things.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

But but hopefully they'll be But they're determined because I last time I remember having a tick, I'm six foot six tall and it was behind my ear. That was a hell of a long climb, and if it if it was slow, I was just totally oblivious to it.

SPEAKER_03 43:34

Exactly, exactly. And you can't tell when you you will not it's not like a mosquito, you're not gonna feel it when it slowly inches in there. That's why you got ten, twelve hours, and they are gonna go up. So it would obviously prefer back of the knee. It wants soft, dark skin, something real easy for them to barb into, but obviously the crotch, the armpits, you know, and but if it runs out of luck, it's gonna get all the way up to the head. So

SPEAKER_00 44:00

And by doing what you what you've described with your with whatever it is you're wearing, you're discouraging them from going up because you're stopping them ahead of the game.

SPEAKER_03 44:10

Yeah, they'll climb up for about four or five hours, but they're dead. They're gonna die. They will not have the ability to embed.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

So you you talk about how they're they're prevalent in high grass or wooded areas. I'm thinking about people who go fishing. If you're near water a lot, is that also a a a good place to be aware of uh the ticks and whether or not they're latching on to you?

SPEAKER_03 44:36

Well, no, it has nothing to do with the water. It's going to be with the bushes and uh the ground there. Remember now, what what proliferates them are the road, it's the it's the mice, the chipmunks, the squirrels. We talked about them being on the deers, but they really start with the small animals. And if you're in an area where you don't have hawks or foxes or whatever, they if there's no predator for the small things because it's kind of chopped up the woods, well then there's gonna be a whole lot more in those areas if you don't have the deep. The only thing that that eats are are the birds. But they but they they love to latch on to the small rodents and then they take them back to the nest and they live and then they grow and grow. So, you know, if you if you're in an area with a lot of bushy area and you know there's little squirrels and stuff running around, that that's gonna be a pretty prolific area.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Good to know, good to know. And you mentioned about watching out for your dogs too, making, you know, whatever you're doing to yourself do safely to your dogs as well, because they're carriers just as easily as you could be, wrapping up a time with Kurt Avery, who's the founder of Sawyer. They make products, which I want to get into now with Kurt about how you can arm yourself and do it and without heavy-duty chemicals and sprays or anything that you might think is toxic. Sawyer.com is where you can find all the products too here listening to issues and ideas. So, what are some of the things that you make available to people as far as for or not just for avoiding ticks and tick attacks, but you have a whole host of products.

SPEAKER_03 46:08

Yeah, and our ours comes from natural. So the permethrin, which we talked about for the fabric and and you know, anything backpacks, all that kind of stuff, which is from mosquitoes and through ticks. Comes from a chrysanthemum plant. It's a derivative of the chrysanthemum plant. And our topical is picarin. We're not using the date, we're using picarin, which comes from the black pepper plant. So these are much more mild on your skin. Um so we got both the topical and the fabric treatment as well. And we do a lot of water filtration too. Around the world we we well, we're very big in domestic and uh any hikers and campers probably know about uh our water filters, but overseas we we go into villages and give people clean water. I think we've done forty million people already giving them clean water. So and now you talk about that for master. Now we have just published in the New England Journal of Medicine is that same chemical that we're telling talking about, if we treat the mom's baby wrap where she's carrying the baby for two years of life, we reduce malaria in the children by sixty-seven percent. So that's just recently published, and that's where we're heading now with that uh why why not? Why you know malaria is brutal. Seven hundred thousand babies a year die of malaria, and we got the solution.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

So when these when people buy your products, they're in turn not just protecting themselves, but they're supporting the work that you're doing in in countries and with causes that you just described.

SPEAKER_03 47:33

Oh, we d we do. Um we we have a nice business, but you know, uh we give over ninety percent of our profit and more you know, donations go overseas for these these situations. Um how do we not do it? I mean we got the solutions for bad water and for um mosquito bites which kill what a third of the people in the world die one or the other, and we got the easy solution. So we we have a foundation, the Sawyer Foundation, and every dollar goes overseas and and really frankly a huge I I'm I'm old enough, I don't need any more money. So we we pretty much donate everything overseas. So if you buy the product, yes, most of that profit's gonna end up overseas.

SPEAKER_00 48:16

And you find out more about the products and the work that the company and Curt is leading at Sawyer.com. It is that time of year, but you doesn't don't have to suffer or be afraid to go outside. You can do it safely without harsh chemicals, no matter what your sensitivity is, your ages, whatever the case may be, you can actually go out and enjoy yourself this summer and not have to worry about these little nasty ticks, mosquitoes, and anything else giving after you. And you when you buy from Sawyer, you're supporting a huge amount of great work that they're doing to save a lot of lives in nations overseas. Kurt, thanks so much for helping us better understand, prepare, and for the difference you're making through the work of your of Sawyer, Sawyer.com again, the website. Thanks for being here today.

SPEAKER_03 48:59

Oh, we thank you. Giving us a chance to get a little education out there. Most people don't know about the easy solutions.

SPEAKER_00 49:06

Earlier we talked about how ICE detention centers operate. Elect the leaders, state officials actually have to make an appointment to visit these facilities, usually twenty-four to seventy-two hours in advance, depending on who you are. As we've seen, if even the governor of New Jersey shows up, she's refused immediate access. So what's the Department of Homeland Security and ICE trying to hide? Or maybe the more accurate question is, what are the afraid will be seen and discovered? Family members and friends of those being detained say that these ICE detention centers are rampant with abuse, violence by ICE officers. We've seen how these poorly trained ICE agents violently lash out in public their actions of range and pepper spraying and physically assaulting people to actually shooting down Americans in the street. Do you think their behavior is any better in the darkness that they so eagerly want to protect? Jesus tells us exactly who these people are in John chapter three verses nineteen and twenty, and this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were either, for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. I've heard people, maybe you too, ranging from those in the White House to social media claim that Ice is doing God's work. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth. In fact, it's Proverbs chapter four verse nineteen, which gives us the truth. The way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble. For all who are participating in and supporting what's being perpetrated by Ice at detention centers, Isaiah chapter five, verse twenty has a warning. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. As we've also seen, a growing number of people are not watching all this unfold only to sit alone feeling sorry for the victims of this violent treatment. They're bringing forward a light to reveal what the federal government wants to keep hiding in the darkness. Their desire will absolutely fail, by the way, as mandated by what we read in Ephesians chapter five, verse eleven, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. We who are God's children and chosen are the light because he has filled us with his light. This is confirmed by first Thessalonians chapter five verse five. You're all sons of light and sons of the day, we are not of the night nor of darkness. And the light of God just isn't a visual. Its source is absolutely spiritual. Paul teaches us this in Second Corinthians chapter four, verse six, for it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Staying in Second Corinthians, we are not to consort with those who do wrong. Arguing about their actions, then going to Denua with them, excuses and even permits their darkness to continue. Let's go to Second Corinthians chapter six fourteen, get an explanation about this. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness for lawlessness, and what communion has light with darkness. It's our duty as Christians to confront the darkness with God's light. It's also a duty which Jesus in Luke chapter six verses forty one and forty two teaches how we need to be ready. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye. Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye. In Second Timothy chapter four, verses two through four, we're made to understand what we're up against as well. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. It's God's word that serves as our strength and armor in these times too. Titus chapter one verse nine reminds us this way, holding fast the faithful word, as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict those who contradict. Now, since the light and the darkness cannot in any way coexist, our works need to come with the light, sourced by God's light. God's own words call on us to the duty I've been talking about today. Let's turn to Leviticus chapter five, verse one. If a person sins in hearing the utterance of an oath and is a witness, whether he has seen or known of the matter, or if he does not tell it, he bears guilt. As you hopefully know in your heart and soul, our duty is not to seek vengeance in times like this. God will handle that at the time and in the way of his choosing. Our direction is given to us in Romans chapter twelve, verse twenty-one. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So when we step forward, we step according to God's will, not ours. Don't forget to check out our website, issues and ideasradio.com. We have more information about the guests who joined us here on the show today. Of course, all the features on the homepage, all through the website. And if you've been listening via your favorite podcast platform, make sure you subscribe and follow. Always grateful and thankful as you come along for the ride with us each and every time. Look forward to being with you right here this time next week for our next edition of Issues and Ideas.